Wikipedia

FIFA World Rankings

world ranking list
Top 20 Rankings as of 26 October 2023[1]
Rank Change Team Points
1 Steady  Argentina 1861
2 Steady  France 1853
3 Steady  Brazil 1812
4 Steady  England 1808
5 Steady  Belgium 1794
6 Steady  Portugal 1740
7 Steady  Netherlands 1739
8 Steady  Spain 1726
9 Steady  Italy 1718
10 Steady  Croatia 1712
11 Steady  United States 1676
12 Steady  Mexico 1664
13 Steady  Morocco 1658
14 Steady  Switzerland 1645
15 Steady  Uruguay 1644
16 Steady  Germany 1643
17 Steady  Colombia 1627
18 Steady  Japan 1613
19 Steady  Denmark 1612
20 Steady  Senegal 1601

The FIFA World Rankings is a ranking of men's football teams selected by FIFA. Currently, the team ranked #1 is Belgium. The rankings were first made in 1993. The first team to receive first place was Germany.

FIFA's list was updated on February 15, 2024; An update is expected again, on April 04.[2]

A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognized full international matches.

FIFA announced in June 2018 that the ranking system would be updated following the 2018 World Cup. The calculation method to be adopted will be closely modeled after the Elo rating system and rankings of its member associations will be updated on a game-by-game basis. The weighting designated for each confederation for ranking purposes was removed.[3] However, the new method does not account for home or away games and margin of the victory, unlike the Elo rankings.[4] This produced a more altered ranking table, with Germany falling to 15th and 2018 World Cup champions France moving to the top of the ranking.[5][6]

Men's rank leaders

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When the system was created, Germany began as the top-ranked team following their dominant period in which they had reached the three previous FIFA World Cup finals, winning one of them. Brazil took the lead in the run up to the 1994 FIFA World Cup after winning eight and losing only one of nine qualification matches, while on the way scoring twenty goals and conceding just four. Italy then led for a short time on the back of their own equally successful World Cup qualifying campaign, after which the top place was re-claimed by Germany.

Brazil's success in their 1993 qualifying campaign returned them to the lead for a brief period. Germany led again during the 1994 World Cup, until Brazil's victory in that competition gave them a large lead that would stand up for nearly seven years, until they were surpassed by a strong France team that captured both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 UEFA Euro.

Success at the 2002 FIFA World Cup restored Brazil to the top position, where they remained until February 2007, when Italy returned to the top for the first time since 1993 following their 2006 FIFA World Cup win in Germany. Just one month later, Argentina replaced them, reaching the top for the first time, but Italy regained its place in April. After winning the Copa América 2007 in July, Brazil returned to the top, but were replaced by Italy in September and then Argentina in October.

In July 2008, Spain took over the lead for the first time, having won UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil began a sixth stint at the top of the rankings in July 2009 after winning the 2009 Confederations Cup, and Spain regained the title in November 2009 after winning every match in qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In April 2010, Brazil returned to the top of the table. After winning the 2010 World Cup, Spain regained the top position and held it until August 2011, when the Netherlands reached the top spot for the first time,[7] only to drop it the following month.

In July 2014, Germany took over the lead once again, having won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In July 2015, Argentina reached the top spot for the first time since 2008, after reaching both the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, as well as the 2015 Copa America Final. In November 2015, Belgium became the leader in the FIFA rankings for the first time, after topping their Euro 2016 qualifying group. Belgium led the rankings until April 2016, when Argentina returned to the top. Brazil returned to the No. 1 spot in April 2017 for the first time since just prior to the 2010 World Cup, because they had already qualified for the 2018 World Cup as they were 1st in their qualification group with 4 match days still left to go.[8] However, Germany regained the top spot in July after winning the Confederations Cup.[9]

In the summer of 2018, FIFA updated their rating system by adopting the Elo rating system. The first ranking list with this system, in August 2018, saw France retake the top spot for the first time after nearly 16 years, having won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. One month later, for the first time, two teams were both leaders as Belgium reached the same ranking as France.[10] This lasted only one month, and from September 2018 until now (as of April 2020), Belgium is leading the FIFA ranking.

Awards

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Team of the year

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Year First place Second place Third place
1993   Germany (1)   Italy   Brazil
1994   Brazil (1)   Spain   Sweden
1995   Brazil (2)   Germany   Italy
1996   Brazil (3)   Germany   France
1997   Brazil (4)   Germany   Czech Republic
1998   Brazil (5)   France   Germany
1999   Brazil (6)   Czech Republic   France
2000   Brazil (7)   France   Argentina
2001   France (1)   Argentina   Brazil
2002   Brazil (8)   France   Spain
2003   Brazil (9)   France   Spain
2004   Brazil (10)   France   Argentina
2005   Brazil (11)   Czech Republic   Netherlands
2006   Brazil (12)   Italy   Argentina
2007   Argentina (1)   Brazil   Italy
2008   Spain (1)   Germany   Netherlands
2009   Spain (2)   Brazil   Netherlands
2010   Spain (3)   Netherlands   Germany
2011   Spain (4)   Netherlands   Germany
2012   Spain (5)   Germany   Argentina
2013   Spain (6)   Germany   Argentina
2014   Germany (2)   Argentina   Colombia
2015   Belgium (1)   Argentina   Spain
2016   Argentina (2)   Brazil   Germany
2017   Germany (3)   Brazil   Portugal
2018   Belgium (2)   France   Brazil
2019   Belgium (3)   France   Brazil
2020   Belgium (4)   France   Brazil

Performance by team

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Team First place Second place Third place Top 3
  Brazil 12 4 5 21
  Spain 6 1 3 10
  Belgium 4 0 0 4
  Germany 3 6 4 13
  Argentina 2 3 5 10
  France 1 8 2 11
  Netherlands 0 2 3 5
  Italy 0 2 2 4
  Czech Republic 0 2 1 3
  Portugal 0 0 1 1
  Colombia 0 0 1 1
  Sweden 0 0 1 1


Best Mover of the Year

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The Best Mover of the Year was awarded to the team who made the best progress up the rankings over the course of the year. In the FIFA rankings, this is not simply the team that has risen the most places, but a calculation is performed in order to account for the fact that it becomes progressively harder to earn more points the higher up the rankings a team is.

The calculation used is the number of points the team has at the end of the year (z) multiplied by the number of points it earned during the year (y). The team with the highest index on this calculation received the award. The table below shows the top three best movers from each year.

The award has not been an official part of the awards since 2006.

Year First place Second place Third place
1993   Colombia   Portugal   Morocco
1994   Croatia   Brazil   Uzbekistan
1995   Jamaica   Trinidad and Tobago   Czech Republic
1996   South Africa   Paraguay   Canada
1997   Yugoslavia   Bosnia and Herzegovina   Iran
1998   Croatia   France   Argentina
1999   Slovenia   Cuba   Uzbekistan
2000   Nigeria   Honduras   Cameroon
2001   Costa Rica   Australia   Honduras
2002   Senegal   Wales   Brazil
2003   Bahrain   Oman   Turkmenistan
2004   China   Uzbekistan   Ivory Coast
2005   Ghana   Ethiopia   Switzerland
2006   Italy   Germany   France

While an official award has not been made for movements since 2006, FIFA has released a list of the 'Best Movers' in the rankings since 2007.[11]

Year Best mover Second best Third best
2007   Mozambique   Norway   New Caledonia
2008   Spain   Montenegro   Russia
2009   Brazil   Algeria   Slovenia
2010   Netherlands   Montenegro   Botswana
2011   Wales   Sierra Leone   Bosnia and Herzegovina
2012   Colombia   Ecuador   Mali
2013[12]   Ukraine   Armenia   United States
2014[13]   Germany   Slovakia   Belgium
2015[14]   Turkey   Hungary   Nicaragua
2016[15]   France   Peru   Poland
2017   Denmark   Sweden   Bolivia
2018[16]   France   Uruguay   Kosovo
2019[17]   Qatar   Algeria   Japan
2019   Hungary   Ecuador   Malta

References

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  1. ↑ "FIFA Men's World Rankings - 10 December 2020". Archived from the original on 23 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  2. ↑ https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men. Retrieved 2024-03-22
  3. ↑ Price, Steve (11 June 2018). "How FIFA's New Ranking System Will Change International Soccer". Forbes. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  4. ↑ "FIFA World Ranking gets overhaul to stop manipulation for draw seedings". 11 June 2018.
  5. ↑ "August 2018 FIFA World Rankings". FIFA. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "Revision of the FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking" (PDF). FIFA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  7. ↑ Rănghiuc, Eduard (12 August 2011). "FIFA Ranking: Netherlands dethrone Spain". Football-Rankings.info. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  8. ↑ "Brazil back on top of FIFA Ranking, Netherlands slump to record low". ESPN. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "Fifa rankings: Northern Ireland reach highest point as Germany lead the way". BBC news. 6 July 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "Belgium and France top Fifa world rankings to be first ever joint-leaders". BBC news. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  11. ↑ Top Team and the Best Mover of the Year Archived 2021-06-27 at the Wayback Machine on the FIFA website (PDF)
  12. ↑ "Spain on top, Ukraine highest climber". fifa.com. 19 December 2013. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  13. ↑ "Germany conquer 2014, Belgium, Slovakia impress". fifa.com. 18 December 2014. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  14. ↑ "Belgium and Turkey claim awards, Hungary return". fifa.com. 3 December 2015. Archived from the original on 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  15. ↑ "Argentina and France take Ranking awards". fifa.com. 22 December 2016. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "Belgium end year on top, France 2018's top mover". FIFA. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  17. ↑ "Belgium crowned Team of the Year, Qatar 2019's biggest climber". FIFA. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
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